Four people have been arrested in Peru on suspicion of killing some 60 people to sell their fat and other human tissue to Italian co-conspirators for cosmetic use in Europe, authorities say.

The suspects were arrested in central Peru this month and a search is underway for seven others, lead prosecutor Jorge Sans Quiro said.

The fat was purchased "to be commercialised in European (cosmetology) laboratories," he said.

The prosecutor's indictment said the gang allegedly targeted farmers and indigenous people on remote Andean roads, tricking them by offering jobs before killing them.

Police began arrests after discovering early this month a container with human fat that was being shipped to Lima from the Andean city of Huanuco, some 400 kilometres northeast of Lima.

Signs of "an international network trafficking human fat" first surfaced about two months ago, according to General Felix Burga, head of the police criminal division.

Peruvian press cited him as saying the fat can be sold for $US15,000 ($16,000) per gallon (3.8 litres) in European countries.

The alleged plot revived the Andean legend of the "Pishtacos", white foreigners who were said to suck the fat out of people travelling on lonely roads at night, making fine soaps, lubricants, healing salves and beauty creams out of the tissue.

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Nairobi — Concerned about the rapid expansion of trade in human organs, the United Nations and the Council of Europe are now pushing for the formulation of an international convention to combat this organised crime. They are focusing on Africa and other developing countries where the trade on human kidneys, livers and tissues like cornea thrives.

Among these organs, the kidney is in greatest demand because it is one of the major organs that can be transplanted with fewer risks to the living donor. Studies show that more than 10 per cent of all transplant organs are from the black market.

Donors are flown or harvested organs exported to developed countries in a very organised manner that make it difficult for the authorities to smell a rat. Kenya and other African countries are said to be easy targets because of the high poverty and lack of strict laws regulating the sale of human organs.

Local doctors admit that the Kenyan law on donations and use of human tissues is not well defined and comprehensive. The Human Tissue Act Cap 252 enacted in 1967 has not been revised and provisions touch largely on the use of body parts of a deceased person for therapeutic purposes.

"The situation is so critical with demand for organs at Kenyatta Hospital outstripping the supply. Getting someone to donate an organ is so difficult leave alone getting one that will match with your system," says a local doctor who sought anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Indeed, some of the hundreds of patients on the waiting list for kidney transplants or with heart ailments die before receiving the organs or being attended to. It is these desperate patients who are becoming easy targets for criminals ready to find and sell such organs to them.

A recent study commissioned by the UN and Council of Europe and conducted by Centre for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania says rich people from wealthier nations are leaving their countries to go to Africa, Asia and South America for what its terms as "transplant tourism".

These rich individuals or people looking for the organs are said to pay huge sums of money, a fraction of which ends up with the person selling the organ. A kidney, for example, can fetch over Sh1 million with sellers getting a third of the money.

The rest is pocketed by brokers and a chain of individuals involved in this illegal business.

Authorities in China and New York have opened investigations into allegations that a black market in Chinese bodies, which may include executed prisoners, is sending corpses to the United States for public display.

The investigations come in the wake of an ABC News report, that aired this Friday on "20/20", that features a self-admitted participant of a bodies black market who described "body runs" to locations where bodies, including those of executed prisoners, were sold for $200 to $300.

The man, who asked that his identity be concealed because he feared arrest, produced photos he said he took at a facility where he was shown what was available. He says he began picking bodies on his next trip to the facility but was not able to take photos then.

"As Buddhists, we should aim to develop relationships that are not predominated by grasping and clinging. Our relationships should be characterised by the brahmaviharas of metta (loving kindness), mudita (sympathetic joy), karuna (compassion), and upekkha (equanimity)."~post by Ben, Jul 02, 2009

As it turns out in this case ~ it didn't happen. The policeman has been suspended from duty.

Cop behind human fat killers probe suspendedPolice last month said they had broken up a gang suspected of killing dozens of people. (Reuters)Peru has suspended its top organised crime investigator after he misled the country by saying he had caught a gang of serial killers who acted out an ancient Andean legend and sold their victims' fat.Eusebio Felix was put on leave from his job for telling Peruvians last month that four suspected murderers apprehended by police were Pishtacos - the legendary killers who roam the Andes mountains extracting fat from travellers.In the legend, the Pishtacos strung up the torsos of their victims above candles and heated them to collect fat.Police initially said the gang murdered up to 60 victims and exported their fat for thousands of dollars a litre to Italian cosmetics makers. In the end, there may have been only one victim.When they announced their big find, police held a news conference and displayed what they said was human fat stored in an empty bottle of Inca Kola, the electric-yellow soft drink popular in the Andes.They also showed a video of police pulling body parts from a shallow grave at a house in the mountainous region of Huanuco.But on Tuesday, after weeks of doubts about the case, police in Lima said the investigation had been botched.General Miguel Hidalgo, the head of Peru's police, said he was embarrassed."This affects the image and respectability of the police," he said.Police in Huanuco, who complain they were excluded from the inquiry, said there was only one murder victim and that he was linked to the cocaine trade.They believe the four alleged killers, who are still in custody, may have bottled his fat to intimidate their rivals in an area rife with drug trafficking and violence.Anthropologists said investigators foolishly believed the Pishtacos legend when searching for a motive for the murder and then played on people's fears by turning the legend into reality."It seems a myth that has been in Peruvian culture for a long time was used to explain a very strange crime," said Juan Rivera of the Catholic University in Lima.Politicians blamed the police for scaring away tourists."This has been a ruse of bad taste," said Jorge Espinoza, president of the region of Huanuco.Doctors said it would be pointless to kill people to harvest their fat when it could be easily collected from plastic surgery clinics that perform tummy tucks."We wouldn't throw out hundreds of litres of human fat if it were worth $15,000 a litre," said Julio Castro of Peru's board of medicine. Others said fat spoils too quickly to be useful.- Reutershttp://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009 ... 759374.htm

mettaChris

---The trouble is that you think you have time------Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe------It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---

But before you go, read the sections from the Vism I have transcribed in this thread:viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2764 [p. 3 & 4]If you can get over the horror, the movie offers some very interesting moral questions and insights into human nature.Don't go on a full stomach and don't go to the movie on a date.

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Hello my name is LauraI'm not sure this is the right place to post this but I was hoping some of you could help Buddhist Monks are featured on the new 30 Seconds to Mars album 'This Is War' the track L490The album itself has a spiritual vibe or specifically the battle for the soul or in buddhist circles Samsara

The Echelon/fans of the band would like to understand the meaning of the chant in the songThe band encourages us to search and discover the true meaningAny help or insight would be greatly appreciated

The band was very honored and happy that the monks participated in their album projectJared Leto is the frontman along with his brother Shannon on drums & guitarist Tomo Milicevic. They are from Los AngelesIt would be wonderful if we could fully understand the meaning and words of the chantAgain thank you in advance. Any insight would be greatly appreciated

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Anyway, those monks look like Tibetan monks, so there may not be many on this site who can help with translation. You might get more help on a site where there are more people familiar with the Tibetan tradition, language, etc.

Due to licensing restrictions, we are not able to allow access to the content you are requesting from outside the United States. We are sorry we can no longer provide access to Canada. If you currently reside in the United States, please select one of the options below to process your request

Additionally, I'm supposing the chants are Tibetan ~ and this is a Theravada message board.

The album itself has a spiritual vibe or specifically the battle for the soul or in buddhist circles Samsara

There is no permanent soul in Buddhism, and "samsara" means "the wandering on" - not "soul".

mettaChris

---The trouble is that you think you have time------Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe------It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---

---The trouble is that you think you have time------Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe------It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---